The space marine, an archetype of science fiction, is a soldier that operates in outer space or on alien worlds.[1] Historical marines fulfill amphibious roles: ship defence, landing parties, and general high-mobility deployments. By extension, space marines defend spaceships, land on planets and moons, and fulfill rapid deployment throughout space.
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The first space marine unit, the Galactic Marines, was used in E. E. Smith's Lensman series, published starting in 1937., but the lesser known Bob Olsen (1884-1956) also wrote a few stories and novelettes about Space Marines in Amazing Stories ("Captain Brink of the Space Marines", November 1932; "The Space Marines and the Slavers", December 1936).
The phrase "space marines" appears in Robert A. Heinlein's "Misfit"[2] (1939) and is again used in "The Long Watch"[3] (1941). Heinlein's Starship Troopers (1959) is considered the defining work for the concept; for example, the actors playing the Colonial Marines in Aliens (1986) were required to read Starship Troopers as part of their training prior to filming.[4] Heinlein intended for the capsule troopers of the Mobile Infantry to be an amalgam of the shipborne aspect of the US Marine Corps relocated to space and coupled with the battlefield delivery and mission profile of US Army paratroopers.
As a gaming concept, space marines play a major role in the Warhammer 40,000 miniatures wargame, in which they are genetically altered super-soldiers and the most powerful fighting forces available to the Imperium of Man. In computer games, playing a space marine in action games was popularized by id Software's Doom series, first published in 1993. It is a convenient game back-story as it excuses the presence of the character on a hostile alien world with little support and heavy weaponry. Some critics have suggested it has been overused to the point of being an action game cliché.[5]
In film and television space marines often appear in squads, while in video games the protagonist marine is usually alone or in very small squads. Depending on the mission, they may be deployed via dropship or another specialised insertion craft. Their battledress varies between media, ranging from equipment comparable to modern-day fatigues (or just being contemporary, such as the equipment of Colonial Marines in the re-imaged Battlestar Galactica) to environmentally sealed suits of powered armour. Equipment and weaponry is similarly varied, often incorporating various fictional technologies. Directed-energy weapons are common, though conventional firearms are not unheard of either. If the marine's armour is particularly bulky, their weapons may be similarly scaled up.
The United States Marine Corps's Project Hot Eagle considers the use of spacecraft to deliver marines to a target on the ground. "Within minutes of bursting into the atmosphere beyond the speed of sound – and dispatching that ominous sonic boom – a small squad of Marines could be on the ground and ready for action within 2 hours."[6]
| Author | Title | Year(s) Published | Unit Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| E. E. Smith | Lensman series | 1934–1954 | Galactic Marines |
| Robert A. Heinlein | "Misfit" | 1939 | Space Marines |
| Robert A. Heinlein | "The Long Watch" | 1941 | Space Marines |
| Robert A. Heinlein | Starship Troopers | 1959 | Mobile Infantry |
| Joe Haldeman | The Forever War | 1974 | United Nations Exploratory Force (UNEF) |
| Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle | The Mote in God's Eye and related novels | 1975 | Imperial Marines |
| Jerry Pournelle and S. M. Stirling | The Prince or Falkenberg's Legion series | 1976–1993; 2002 | CoDominium Marines |
| David Weber | Starfire series | 1990–Present | Federation Navy Marine Corps |
| David Weber | Honor Harrington series | 1992–Present | Royal Manticoran Marine Corps (RMMC) of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, et cetera |
| David Sherman and Dan Cragg | StarFist series | 1997–Present | Confederation Marine Corps |
| Ian Douglas | 1998–Present | United States Marines Corps, United Star Marine Corps | |
| John Varley | Rolling Thunder | 2008 | Martian Naval Corps |
| Director | Title | Year(s) Published | Unit Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michael E. Briant | Doctor Who serial Death to the Daleks | 1973–1974 | Marine Space Corps |
| George Lucas | Star Wars | 1977–Present | Galactic Marines of the Grand Army of the Republic, originally known as the 21st Nova Corps. Imperial Stormtroopers of the Original Trilogy also fit the role of space marines of the Galactic Empire. The Rebel Alliance has an entire regiment of Space Operations, nicknamed "Rebel Marines". |
| Lewis Gilbert | Moonraker | 1979 | United States Marine Corps on a space shuttle armed with lasers |
| Leiji Matsumoto | Star Blazers | 1979–1984 | Ground combat units found on the 11th planet are known as "Space Marines" |
| James Cameron | Aliens | 1986 | United States Colonial Marine Corps |
| Douglas Netter and J. Michael Straczynski | Babylon 5 | 1994–1998 | EarthForce Marine Corps (also known as "Gropos" or "GROund POunderS") |
| Glen Morgan and James Wong | Space: Above and Beyond | 1995–1996 | United States Marine Corps Space Aviator Cavalry |
| John Weidner | Space Marines (film) | 1996 | United Planets Marines |
| Keiji Gotoh | Kiddy Grade | 2001–2002 | GOTT Marine Corps |
| David Eick and Ronald D. Moore | Battlestar Galactica | 2004–2009 | Colonial Marine Corps, Colonial Marine Corps Reserve |
| Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper | Stargate Atlantis | 2004–2009 | United States Marine Corps attached to the Atlantis Expedition |
| James Cameron | Avatar | 2009 | Ex Marines and mercenaries working with the RDA Corporation on Pandora. |
| Title | Publisher | Game Type | Year(s) Published | Unit Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traveller | Game Designers' Workshop | Role-playing game | 1977 | Star Marines, Terran Confederation Marine Corps, Imperial Marine Force, Solomani Marine Corps, and Zhodani Consular Guard |
| Starfire series | Task Force Games; Starfire Design Studio | Board wargame | 1979–1980 | Federation Navy Marine Corps |
| Metroid | Nintendo | Action-adventure game | 1986–Present | Galactic Federation Marine Corps/07th Platoon |
| Warhammer 40,000 | Games Workshop | Wargaming; Tabletop game; Dice game | 1987–Present | Imperial Space Marine Chapters, and also, to an extent, Chaos Space Marines. Some forces from other armies - notably the Stormtroopers of the Imperial Guard, Eldar Swooping Hawks and Warp Spiders, and Grey Knights operate in this manner. |
| Wing Commander Franchise | Origin Systems, Inc. | Space combat simulation | 1990–1999 | Terran Confederation Marine Corps |
| Duke Nukem series | 3D Realms | First-person shooter; Platform | 1991–Present | Earth Defense Forces (EDF) |
| Doom series | id software | First-person shooter | 1993–Present | United Nations Space Marine Corps |
| Command & Conquer series | former Westwood Studios,
now Electronic Arts |
Real-time strategy; First-person shooter | 1995–Present | Global Defense Initiative can deploy certain infantry units directly from its space stations |
| Quake Series | id software | First-person shooter | 1996–Present | SMC (Space Marine Corps) Marines |
| Outwars | Microsoft | Third-person shooter; Tactical shooter | 1998 | Colonial Marines |
| StarCraft | Blizzard Entertainment | Real-time strategy | 1998–Present | Confederate Marine Corps, the Dominion Marine Corps, the Alliance Marine Corps, the Alpha Corps, the United Earth Directorate Powered Infantry and numerous more |
| Ground Control | Sierra On-Line | Real-time tactics | 2000 | Crayven Corporation's Marines |
| Halo series | Microsoft Game Studios | First-person shooter; Real-time strategy | 2001–Present | UNSC Marine Corps and the elite Orbital Drop Shock Trooper divisions (special forces qualified for drop pod insertion). |
| Red Faction series | THQ | First-person shooter; Third-person shooter | 2001–Present | Earth Defence Marine Corps (E.D.M.C.) and Earth Naval Guard (E.N.G.) |
| Natural Selection | Unknown Worlds Entertainment | First-person shooter; Real-time strategy | 2002–2007 | Frontiersmen (human space marines) |
| TimeSplitters 2 | Eidos Interactive | First-person shooter | 2002 | Space Marines (Sergeant Cortez and Corporal Hart) |
| Killzone series | SCEE | First-person shooter | 2003–Present | Interplanetary Strategic Alliance Marines |
| TimeSplitters: Future Perfect | Electronic Arts | First-person shooter | 2005 | Space Marines (Sergeant Cortez) |
| Mass Effect series | Microsoft Game Studios; Electronic Arts | Action role-playing game; Third-person shooter | 2007–Present | Systems Alliance Military, Including Commander Shepard, because there are no service branches anymore. |
| Dead Space series | Electronic Arts | Survival horror; Third-person shooter | 2008-present | USM Marine Corps - They are seen during the game when the ship USM Valor crashes on the USG Ishimura and the player must board the crash site to recover a singularity core. |
| Turok | Touchstone Interactive | Action game; First-person shooter | 2008 | Marines(Elite Commandos) |
| Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard | D3 Publisher | Action game; Third-person shooter | 2009 | Space Marines |
| Alien Swarm | Valve Corporation | Action game; Third-person shooter; Shoot-em-up; Top-down | 2010 | Space Marines - The game can be single player or 4 players co-op. Theres 4 classes with 2 characters for each class: Officer, Special Weapons, Medic and Tech. |